His words will reveal the backstage area, the technical installations and the floor of the René Gonzalez room. But his anecdotes and digressions gradually uncover the forms of power linked to theatrical representation in our society of today.

In Un spectacle, we invite the audience to reconsider art venues through mental “guided performance tours”, starting from the architecture of the venue where the show is being performed: the theatre itself. This starting point offers the pretext for an exploration of contemporary models of theatres. The tier, the stage, the grid and its spotlights, the dance mat, the entire generic device used for a show is scrutinized. During the “tour” – no one moves, the wandering is mental – a route is mapped out through the performing, visual and plastic arts of the modern and post-modern eras. The explosion of performances in the 20th and 21st centuries is thus also examined.

The performance thus immerses the audience in an account that creates a dialogue between emblematic places and the artistic forms that were conceived there. How can we explain this proliferation of dance halls, theatres, galleries and museums at a particular moment in history in which the modes of representation are becoming more and more numerous? What makes them possible? What do they tell us about our relationship to the world, our relationship to ourselves, to our societies? Implicit in this is a consideration of the functions of contemporary art and of "beauty". Interrogating the contexts of creation in order to reveal the dynamics of power, beyond entertainment.

The form is not intended to be didactic. A “guided tour” based on the architecture and the scenography of the place will serve as a guiding principle. The term “guided performance tour” will be used as a playful narrative process to shift the gaze and stimulate the imagination, as the audience will be called upon to take part in a play from their seats. The “guide” – played by Dominique Gilliot – will lead them through this performance by embodying successive images and suggesting this fundamental question, at the core of the project: “What are we doing here together?”

Un Spectacle continues our research into power, in its relational dimension and the way it is concretely embedded in our existence. An approach undertaken in our previous projects, Showroom and L’Âge d’or.

Presentation by Igor Cardellini and Tomas Gonzalez, 2022